SINGAPORE, January 3. /TASS/. Extremely bad weather could also be behind the crash of an AirAsia jet on the way from Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, to Singapore, electronic version of the Straits Times newspaper reported on Saturday.
“The most probable weather phenomenon is that icing caused the plane engines to be damaged," the newspaper quoted the report by Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency. "This is however just one analysis of what likely happened based on available meteorological data, and is not the final determination on the cause of the incident."
Agency’s officials also noted that the jet had most likely flown into storm clouds. Meanwhile, a weather forecast made before the flight showed that the scheduled route was “worrying”, the report said.
This was earlier reported that the crew sought to bypass the storm asking for another altitude. However, Indonesian ground services denied a shift to another flight level, permitting to turn left.
On December 28, 2014, the AirAsia jet disappeared from radar screens about 40 minutes after the take-off, flying in the area of Kalimantan (Borneo) Island. The A320-200 airliner was carrying 155 passengers and seven crewmembers.